Ok so i've got my new system all ready to be ordered but i'm kinda stuck here and need some better info from the more tech savy people here.

Is it worth shelling out extra for a 1366 slot i7 or is it just as good to go for the 1156? If I go with the 1366 now it means I get a motherboard with dual 16x slots so when I crossfire (eventually) my 5850 i'll get even more grunt. With the 1156 they only go up to x8 for the 2nd one it seems. So is it worth saving a bit of cash rather than going with a 1366 now, and leaving my future upgrade options open? I'd be getting this one to go with the cpu so i'd also get the triple channel ram too

are MSI good now ?

well it's either that one or the gigabyte because i've streched my budget as far as it can go, so nothing else in price range for me

I've got a P6T which serves me fine. There wasn't an MSI variant available when I bought but the pic looks like it's pretty much the same layout as the ASUS. The Gigabyte looks cut down. I'm pretty happy with my machine but it's not like I can really compare it accurately to the 1156 systems. Benchmarks seem pretty favourable to the the 9xx chips though.

Get a big case, I've got the 5850 and it only just fit and stops me from using a couple of HDD bays. If I xfire it I'll definitely be getting a bigger case first. The SATA ports are put in from the side too which is another tight fit for my case.

I dont think you could go wrong with either idea.

If you get the i5, itll run a single fast card faster, but sli/x-fire slower, so you should shell out for a good single card.

alternativey the i7 idea is just as good, its all opinion and speculation and whether or not you like x-fire/sli

edit: I might add the i7 idea has more expensive triple channel ram, i5s are dual as far as i know

I'm leaning toward the i7 idea since I want this pc to last a few good years with minimal upgrades made to it. Another 5850 is about all i'd need to do to it really to make it last a long while. This is the case i'm going with too and love the internal layout of the whole thing as it seems so neat and tidy for a change.

Oh and triple chan ram is pretty much the same cost really I found

last edited by DM at 19:31:04 23/Dec/09

Triple channel matched ram is actually cheaper when you compare it on a gig for gig basis.

That case looks a bit longer than the one I got (Antec 300 or something), which is all you need really since mine fits but the little bit of extra length will give you a bit of breathing space. It has the PSU on the bottom like mine which surprisingly my Antec PSU cables were only just able to reach the mobo power connections. You'd think if they made cases with PSU's on the bottom they would give you a little extra cable length on their power supplies.

I usually get whatever I want now because when it comes time to upgrade there's always a new standard causing me to have to buy a completely new motherboard anyway. No motherboard I've had has survived an upgrade. If it's not different CPU sockets it's different PCIe standards and if it's not that it's a different kind of RAM.

That is a good point whoop. Right now i'm leaning toward the 1366 machine I have written down since it seems it's gonna stick around for at least awhile. With the 2nd 16x PCIe slot on the motherboard it'll give me a fantastic boost when I do add another 5850 onto it in a few months.

Heres hoping the parts fall in cost after xmas which will deffinatly seal the deal for me

I've put together one 1366 and two 1156 systems recently. My experiences:

The 1366 allowed me to choose either 6GB and 12GB for memory, the 1156 allowed 4GB and 8GB (i.e. in optimal configurations with standard sticks). 4GB is out of the question for a modern multi-purpose machine in my opinion, fine for a light gaming or internet box. So I went 12GB for the 1366, 8GB and 4GB on the two 1156 boxen.

The 1366 was mature at the time and I had no problems finding specific RAM (12GB) that was known to work with the mobo (P6T Deluxe v2) perfectly. Fast forward to the recent 1156 build and there weren't too many sticks tested in an 8GB configuration as most people went the cheap 4GB approach. Some matched pairs worked fine by themselves, but use two pairs (i.e. 4 sticks) and many boards had issues recognising them.

I had to comb through the manufacturers' forums to find exact matched pair models (that were sold and in stock in Brisbane) that would work on my chosen mobo (P7P55D) when doubled up to give 8GB, plus rated at a low-enough voltage to not cause other problems.

Some of the P55 board designs are pretty compact in terms of layout, need to pay special attention to the physical ram dimensions and ram slot locations if you want to put a decent cooler on (a Noctua, etc). Two 2GB sticks on one machine had no problems, but filling all four slots on the 8GB box ended up with 3mm clearance from the CPU fan. I need to remove the fan to remove the RAM.

After building these systems, I'm more confident in the 1366 due to its maturity and not being targeted as a 'budget' configuration as the 1156s are. Some of the 1156 boards are still being BIOS updated to oblivion to resolve some weird issues (look up the 1156 iTunes bug for example).

I'm sure some people will disagree, but I generally want absolute stability from a system and quite a bit of headroom (ram capacity, component clearance, build quality, etc). I found the 1366 approach met these goals much easier.

last edited by parabol at 21:05:22 23/Dec/09

Thanks for your info parabol. I'm gonna stick with the 1366 now and work my system around that. It may cost a bit more but well worth the cost since it'll last longer it seems.

You can buy the latest i7 series in 1156.

You lose out on the triple channel RAM, but save yourself a fortune on the board (and the ram also).

Clock for clock, the i5 and i7 are almost the same, the main difference being the lack of hyper-threading in the i5. So it depends whether you need 8 processor threads, or will 4 do?

I've also put together an i7 in the 1366 and an i7 in the 1156 this year. The 1366 has been nothing but problems, but I've had not a hint of trouble from my 1156. (They were both Gigabyte motherboards.)

I'd suggest going with the 1156 with dual channel, then sell your 5850, put that and your MB/RAM savings together and buy a 5970.

MB/RAM Savings: $300
5850 on ebay: $300
Cost of a 2nd 5850: $300

Cost of 1 5970: $1000

Pretty sure the 5970 will blow 2 x 5850's out of the water.

For further advice: I couldn't tell from the case you quoted where all the fans are. I specifically went the Antec 900 II (or 902) in all my builds because it lets you cool the hard-drives and CPU using the same channel of air.

i.e. it has two hard-drive bays that can each house 3 drives, with a fan in each bay. Can move one of the bays towards the top front of the case, sucking air towards the CPU heatsink. Get a Noctua or Ultra-120 CPU + fan to blow air in the same direction (towards the back of the case), the back case fan finishes off the job. Awesome straight-line wind-tunnel effect, minimum restriction or change of direction of air, allowing you to put all the fans on the lowest speed while the hard drives and CPU heatsink are still cool to the touch. I'm currently running 5 HDDs in mine and can barely tell they are on just by touch, all fans on minimum.

So many times I see people adding high speed fans to s*** cases, blowing air in all directions, achieving very little as the air has no straight forward way of entry and escape, much less blowing over important components.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the easily removable dust filters on the front fans. Been peeling off layers of crap every month that otherwise would have ended up inside the case.

last edited by parabol at 21:42:42 23/Dec/09

I looked at the antec 900 2 originally and it was the choice I was going to go with until I saw the Lancool one. I didn't like the way the inside looked. The lancool case has a bunch of fans too.

1x 140mm fan in the front (I would add another)
2x 140mm fans on the top
1x 120mm fan on the back. seems about the same layout as the 900 2

EDIT - After a bit of looking around on the umart site and changing a few things with my 1156 i7 system and 1366 one, there is really only an $80 difference between the 2 in price. If it comes down to that little then why not choose the one more new?

EDIT 2 - Also just to help things a bit more for some more info this is the system i'm currently going with.

Intel Core i7 920 Processor LGA1366
MSI X58 Pro-E X58
OCZ 6G(3x2G) DDR3 10666 Platinum
Western Digital 500G SATAII 7200rpm x4
Sapphire HD5850 - emailed umart asking when the next shipment of XFX cards should come in as that would save around $70 switching to that brand
Lian Li Lancool PC-K62
Antec ATX TruePower 750W Blue

last edited by DM at 22:46:32 23/Dec/09

That's a pretty similar setup to what I have. Exact same ram and gfx card, I went with the ASUS mobo and a 950 for cpu because the 920's were sold out nation wide at the time. Other than my choice of case I'm very happy with it, planning on upgrading early next year to xfire and raid along with a bigger case which should see me through to well into 2011 if not 2012. By then the end of the world will happen so no need to worry about future upgrades.

As a frame of reference, I run games at 1900x1200 with usually maxed settings and get decent frame rates from most games. The only one that has seemed a little light on the fps has been batman and for some reason since the last update I had to scale Dragon Age back to 4x AA instead of 8x.